Tag Archives: Hegel
The Owl of Minerva Takes Flight Again
This is being written the last Sunday evening before our national election. By the time it’s posted, tabulation of ballots will be under way, perhaps disclosing which way the political winds are now blowing. However, as Hegel wrote: The owl … Continue reading
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, agnosticism, alienation, American politics, anthropology, anti-semitism, appreciation, art, art of living, atheism, authenticity, autonomy, bad faith, beauty, Biblical God, bigotry, books, bureaucracy, chivalry, Christianity, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cults, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, ethnicity, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, female power, femininity, feminism, filial piety, films, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, Gnosticism, guilt and innocence, health, Hegel, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, id, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, immortality, institutional power, Jesus, Jews, journalism, Judaism, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, martyrdom, masculinity, master, master/slave relation, memoir, memory, Messianic Age, mind control, modern women, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, mortality, motherhood, mysticism, Nihilism, nineteenth-century, non-violence, novels, ontology, oppression, pacifism, past and future, peace, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, poetry, political, political movements, politics, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, power games, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, race, racism, radicalism, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, remembrance, repairing the culture, roles, romance, romantic love, romanticism, science, scientism, secular, seduction, self-deception, sex appeal, sexuality, slave, social climbing, social construction, social conventions, social ranking, sociobiology, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, spirituality, status, status of women, suffering, terror, terrorism, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, the profane, the sacred, theism, theology, time, Truth, TV, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged 2024 election, academic philosophy, Antonio Gramsci, art history in academe, campus politics, cancel culture, cultural movements and dialectic, French Revolution, Freudian influence, Gramsci and cultural power, Gramsci and evidential constraints, Gramsci and political power, Gramscian agenda, Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks, Hegel, Hegelian view of culture, humanistic fields, intellectual emptiness, intellectual exhaustion, Liberal Arts, literature in academe, new hypothesis, oppressor and oppressed, path-breaking exploration, philosophers and political forecasts, philosophical skepticism, philosophy and the zeitgeist, political wins, postmodernism and academic philosophy, postmodernism and contradictions, postmodernism and dialectic, postmodernism and evidence, postmodernism and logic, postmodernism and refutation, postmodernism as exercise in persuasion, postmodernism as rhetoric, postmodernism as skepticism, postmodernism past its peak, psychology in academe, refusal of dialectic, Reign of Terror, risking denunciation, social sciences in academy, the cultural landscape, the goddess of wisdom, the owl of Minerva, the spirit of the times
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Why Choose the Jews?
It feels like forever – so changed are the times! – but it’s only been two days at this writing. Starting in the early hours of October 7, Hamas operatives surprised and overwhelmed Israeli surveillance and defenses at the Gaza … Continue reading
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, American politics, anthropology, art, art of living, atheism, autonomy, bad faith, Bible, Biblical God, bigotry, book reviews, books, bureaucracy, childhood, chivalry, Christianity, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cults, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, female power, femininity, feminism, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, Gnosticism, guilt and innocence, health, Hegel, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, id, Idealism-, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, immortality, institutional power, Jews, journalism, Judaism, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, martyrdom, masculinity, master, master/slave relation, memoir, memory, Messianic Age, mind control, modern women, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, mortality, motherhood, mysticism, non-violence, novels, ontology, oppression, pacifism, past and future, peace, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, poetry, political, political movements, politics, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, race, radicalism, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, romance, romantic love, romanticism, science, scientism, secular, seduction, self-deception, sex appeal, sexuality, slave, social climbing, social construction, social conventions, social ranking, sociobiology, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, spirituality, status, status of women, suffering, terror, terrorism, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, the profane, the sacred, theism, theology, time, TV, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged accepting the historical condition, anti-semitism, anti-semitism on campus, anti-Zionism, asymmetrical relations between siblings, asymmetrical relations between the sexes, Biblical insights, biblical Israel, Biblical narratives and history, blaming the Jews, book of Genesis, Cain and Abel, casus belli, choosing the Jews, competitve victimhood, curing anti-semitism, curing sibling rivalry, defending the oppressed, deliberate targeting of civilians, escaping history, explaining anti-semitism, expulsion from Eden, families under siege, fashionable oppression, fashionable victimhood, Genesis as a theory of history, Genesis as an introduction to history, gnostic escapism, Hamas operatives, Hegel, Hegel’s theory of history, history’s cost, ill-timed visit to Israel, incurable human relations, incurable situations, inheriting the human situation, Israel’s 1948 War of Independence, Israeli defenses, Israeli surveillance, James Baldwin, Jewish students and professors, Jews and philosophy of history, Jews and theories of history, killing your brother, knowing when to run, Kojeve, Kojeve’s theory of history, living in history, living with God in history, Marx, Marx’s theory of history, no place is safe, oppression of women, origin of history, philosphers of history, privileging the underdog, public war crimes, purpose of higher education, refusing history, selective anti-oppression, selective condemnations, selective outrage, sibling rivalry, suffering of mortality, surprise attack, the chosen people, the fall into history, the Jewish homeland, The Longest Hatred, the mark of Cain, the reality of living in history, the suffering of the human condition, the suffering of work, theology and history, theories of history, undermining higher education, unfashionable oppression, vulnerability of women, why Cain kills Abel, Yom Kippur attack
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How Jewish Am I?
How Jewish Am I? If being Jewish by birth is what counts, I suppose I’m Jewish enough. But it’s not a necessary condition for securing that identity. A few years ago, a young Christian woman – a friend and participant … Continue reading
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, alienation, anthropology, art of living, autonomy, Biblical God, books, Christianity, cities, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, cults, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, femininity, freedom, friendship, gender balance, Gnosticism, guilt and innocence, Hegel, hidden God, history of ideas, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, Jews, Judaism, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, memoir, memory, Messianic Age, mind control, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, nineteenth-century, ontology, oppression, past and future, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, seduction, self-deception, sex appeal, social construction, social conventions, social ranking, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, spirituality, status of women, suffering, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, the profane, the sacred, theism, theology, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged Abigail L. Rosenthal's "Confessions of a Young Philosopher", ancestral religion, ashram, asking God, becoming a cult, coherent narrative, Confessions of a Young Philosopher, conversion misgivings, conversion to Judaism, cult leader, cults, defining anti-semite, defining Jews, demoralization, disconnected episodes, disparaging Jews, dissolving ego, Divine aura, escapism, ethnic identity, Freud, Freudian interpretation, God as Witness, God’s answer, grass is greener, guru, Guru Gita, hating God, Hegel, Hegelian interpretation, Hindu classics, Indian worship, inherited values, Jewish by birth, Jewish convert, Jewish identity, Jewish observance, Jewish spirit, Lakshmi pujas, language game, learning meditation, legitimizing the person, looking marvelous, meaningful story, memorial gathering, merging with the Divine, mikvah immersion, observance v belief, passion for God, personal identity, philosopher friend, prayer in the IRT, reaching samadhi, religious identity, Sanscrit, sense-making, signing the covenant, story and person, the Jewish troubles, total immersion, unearthly grace, we will do and we will hear, what is a Jew?, Wittgenstein, woman guru, yentas, yoga asanas, yogic breathing
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“Intellectual Women”
“Intellectual Women” Ugh. What a subject! I guess I’m one, but it doesn’t sound like a fun topic. In college, I had hesitated before deciding to major in philosophy. Would it look mannish? Would eligible bachelors be put off? When … Continue reading
Posted in academe, action, alienation, autonomy, chivalry, courtship, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, ethics, fashion, femininity, feminism, freedom, friendship, gender balance, guilt and innocence, Hegel, history, history of ideas, identity, ideology, institutional power, love, male power, masculinity, master, memoir, nineteenth-century, philosophy, political, political movements, power, psychology, relationships, roles, sex appeal, sexuality, social conventions, sociobiology, suffering, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, time, twentieth century, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged abrasive women, animal courtship, Being and Nothingness, books that change lives, Brooklyn College, co-education, coming out of the closet, discipline, dumbing down, eligible bachelors, equality of achievement, existentialism, female professor, Feminism, Flirting, freedom, gender performance, gender roles, gender-based laws, Hegel, ideology, intellectual power, Jean-Paul Sartre, male and female colleagues, male dominance, male rivalry, National Geographic, nineteenth-century philosophy, pecking order, revolutions in history, Simone de Beauvoir, sociobiology, the mating game, The Second Sex, women in philosophy
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